


to keep the goddess on my side

by nauticaminus



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Multi, Reincarnation AU, Soulmates, Sparkmates, is this an excuse to write my favorite rarepair? Maybe. But it’s a brilliant excuse, it WILL happen theres no escape, megatron WILL be soft for his wife, megatron is. megatronus obv, nautica is a goddess yes she is, nautica is solus prime, probably definitely a lot of kissing later, this is such an elaborate crackship but it’s special to me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29750535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nauticaminus/pseuds/nauticaminus
Summary: Megatronus thought that the moment Solus Prime’s spark flickered out at his own hands, it would be the last time they ever met.Now, millennia later, Megatron and Nautica find themselves with memories that don’t belong to them, and a strange familiarity where there should have been a stranger’s face.
Relationships: Fallen/Solus Prime, Megatron/Nautica (Transformers)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**_Cybertron. 12 Million Years Ago._ **

How did it come to this?

Electricity, crystalline sparks of energy fizzed off of the gaping hole in her chest as the Star Saber, the blade she’d forged with her own servos, slid away from her frame and was subsequently dropped to the floor in a thundering clatter. Solus Prime, the Prime of creation, of invention, fell to the ground, bright violet energon spilled around her. Pain,  _ wicked _ betrayal shot through her, and her optics flitted to lock with those of the mech who had stabbed her. 

Megatronus stood above her, blade discarded, and an unreadable shock plastered across his face. He looked at her, then lifted his servos, taking shaky vents as he realized they were coated with her energon, her precious life force—her fading spark, on his hands. 

Where fury had once consumed him, it was now replaced with a terrible guilt, and he dropped to his knees beside her to lift his lover into his arms.

“No, no  _ no no, NO _ !” His breaths were heavy, panicked, as he pulled her close, digits brushing over her face while the light in her optics started to dim. “Solus,  _ please _ , I never—I didn’t intend for this, you have to—“ 

Megatronus was not a weak mech, by any means, but the realization of what he’d done sinking into his spark caused choked sobs to rise up from his chest, stricken with the knowledge that nothing would ever be able to make up for what he had just done. Burning red tears dripped from his optics onto her face, and Solus’s chestplates rose and fell in shuddering motions as she came to terms with her own approaching demise.

He tried to speak again, teeth grit together in grief for his Conjunx and fury for Liege Maximo, the  _ manipulator _ , the one who had pushed him into getting so— _ so— _

His thoughts went silent as her cool servo touched the side of his face, eyes searching his face as though she would never see it again. He leaned in to meet her, their two sparks burning in time as they always had, despite hers slowly beginning to flicker out. 

Solus was ice. She was the calm ocean tide to his burning flame, the only one who could ever quench the fires in his soul, who could slip in like a trickle of water and ease him into simmering down. And now, at their collide, the steam gathered about them, Megatronus knew there was so little time before she slipped away entirely. 

“I’m sorry,” He grieved, leaning into her hand. “Beloved, I’m so.. I’m so  _ sorry _ .”

Perhaps she shouldn’t have, but the femme smiled; a bittersweet, painful grin, energon dripping from her painted lips. “ _ Hah _ ,” Solus coughed out a laugh, a reminiscent gleam in her eye. “The great Megatronus weeps for me, does he..?” Her thumb digit traced over his optic, glistening in the fading glow of her biolights, wiping away the fluid from his face. 

“Please don’t go,” He urged, gripping her armor plating. “I can fix this, I promise.”

“Not in this life,” She murmured, eyes lidding as her helm tipped back, helm coils soaked in her own energon splaying along the floor. “It’s far too late for me, my love.”

“What will I do? What  _ can _ I do, after—after I’ve done this? How can I go on without you?”

Solus Prime narrowed her optics, staying silent for a moment. Her servo dropped to his arm, and with her last bit of strength, she gripped the plating there and burned the last sparks of her vocal cords with a solidifying command. 

“Wait for me,” She spoke with the voice of a General, a warrior—a Prime. “There is nothing left for me in this life, and perhaps .. perhaps nothing left for you, either,” Her breath faltered for only a moment, but it was overturned by a surge of energy that pushed her close to his face. “But I  _ will _ find you. My spark will find yours again. Wait for me, Megatronus—we will .. we will meet again .. _ I promise _ ..”

With that last vent, the great spark of the Prime of creation flickered and fizzled out, like a beautiful dying star that would surely vanish into the abyss and burn away everything around it in it’s last act of glory. Megatronus shook with a mass of emotion, unable to properly process his grief as the corpse of his Conjunx Endura went cold in his grip.   
  


Why? Why did she have to say that? She should have  _ hated _ him, cursed him to eternal damnation—not give him sweet reassurance as she always had, even in her dying moments.. how could she have ever forgiven him?

Her frame was lowered to the floor. His servos pulled away, stained magenta with her energon, and the rest of it pooled around her broken body, forming a macabre halo around her head. Her optics, once full of life, of wonder for the universe, were now blank and powerless. Just like that, she was gone. 

And it was his fault.

Megatronus reached for the Star Saber. The blade fit in the palm of his servo well, as well as it ever would, and he got to his pedes. He had nothing, now. Nothing left to stop the darkness swollen in his spark to extend to his mind, his limbs, and now to his blade, the very same with which he had just slaughtered his Sparkmate. There was nothing left to quench the burning desire for destruction in his soul—nothing, now that she was gone.

He turned his optics to the other Primes. Fools, cowards, he thought them. And one by one, they would each fall to that same blade; the blade by which the first Prime was killed.. the only Prime he ever loved. 

_ Wait for me _ , she had said.  _ We will meet again. _

_ Perhaps _ , he thought, tightening his grip on the Star Saber and steadying his frame.  _ But not for a long time, my love. _

_ Not until it’s all over. _

———

**_Present Day. Luna 2. Megatron’s Trial._ **

_ This was it,  _ Megatron thought to himself.

_ It’s all over. _

His optics, cold and calculating, swept over the sea of Cybertronians who had come to behold his judgement. So many that would have, at any other time, shrieked and fled at the sight of his face, now stood over him, glaring down where he stood with smug faces and idle chatter. 

What was all of it for, he wondered? All these years of war, of constant struggle, of anguish and defeat and conquering and glorious, bloodcurdling victory. And now here he stood, on trial for his countless crimes, and his spark still felt so .. empty. 

What could it have been? What missing piece, what sense of longing that had drawn him along the battlefield still remained? 

“Well, Megatron?” He snapped out of his thoughts, having spaced out while Starscream went on his tirade about some terrible action the former warlord had taken. His optics flitted up to Optimus, standing above him at the Judge’s stand.. how fitting. 

Well, Megatron, indeed .. what will you choose, then? He hummed in thought, going silent as he scoured the courtroom once more. Was it fitting of him to go out like this, having never found just what it was that had tugged on his spark for so long? For millennia, he thought, surely, when I win the war, when the war is over .. yet here he stood on the other side, feeling nothing short of .. empty.

His sight shifted to Starscream, catching that age-old smug expression on his face. The seeker knew just what he wanted the Decepticon leader to say—knew just how he would feel when the order was given for his head. Megatron felt a familiar rage bubble up at that thought. He clicked his tongue in indignation and glanced back to Optimus, somewhat able to ease his own temper in such a place. Where normally it would have boiled over, it stayed simmering below the surface, knowing there was no longer any point in allowing it to rise. Not here, at least. Some small part of him, some burning sense of spite left in his weary spark that set aflame the moment he had locked onto Starscream’s overtly triumphant expression, overtook his mouth and made a decision for him before he could properly ponder his original idea.

“Prime,” Megatron answered, raising his chin, already set in his choice before the words came out.

“I’d like to take a small  _ recess _ with Ultra Magnus. I believe there may be .. an alternative.”

————

**_The Lost Light. Hab Suite 113._ **

“We shouldn’t be here,” Nautica warned, a comment that was quickly disregarded by Brainstorm as he shuffled through a stack of books on the desk. 

“And miss up the chance to see where the Big Guy is staying? Cmon, Nauts, you know as soon as he gets on board, this room will never see the light of day again. Primus only knows he must be the most secretive mech in the far side of our known Universe. Here, catch.” The weaponsmith tossed a book to her, which she fumbled to catch, and took a moment to regain her grip on the object before flipping it around to look over it.

“I don’t  _ know _ anything about the man,” She muttered, flipping through the pages of the book for a better scan. “Except, you know.. Leader of the Decepticons—former, sorry. Excellent author. But everyone knows that.”

Brainstorm quirked an optic ridge at her, setting the datapad he’d picked up down and glancing back towards his new friend. “You know, most bots wouldn’t add the “excellent author” comment. You some sort of incognito Decepticon, Nautica?” He mused this easily, although an unreadable, irony-stricken look passed through his optics.

“No!” She slapped the book shut, giving him an indignant expression. “I’m not a—I’ve just read his works before, alright? Whatever I could get my hands on in Caminus..” Nautica trailed off, deciding not to bring up that the books of his she  _ had  _ read were nothing less than contraband. But, of course, the Mistress of Flame didn’t need to know that. 

“Uh-huh. Just don’t come crying to me when Rodimus finds your stash of Decepticon memorabilia, and your special signed poster of the Phase-Sixers.” He teased, setting a few things back carefully where he found them and flicking his wings a bit. Nautica rolled her optics at him, slowly getting used to his playful comments the more they spoke. Everyone on this ship was certainly a character of their own, something she understood better and better the longer she spent with the crew. After spending so long, since her creation, secluded on her home planet.. it was nice to be able to see the universe.

“Well, there’s nothing too interesting here.” Brainstorm made a clicking-of-the-tongue sound under his faceplate, folding his arms and doing a final mental sweep of the room. “Shame. Thought I’d find something useful.”

“Useful?” Nautica questioned, unsure as to what he meant. The remark would go unanswered, as the jet waved his servo and headed towards the door.

“Stay however long you like—but he might drop in any time, so keep an optic out.” Sliding out the door, he gave her a short salute and a wave, and she would have liked to think he was smiling under his mask. “Catch you later, Nauts!”

“Brainstorm—“ She started, but he had already shut it behind him. Shoot. Oh well, it was probably just a joke, anyway. She picked up another book, flipping through it idly until she landed on an eye-catching paragraph. 

If she recalled correctly, this was one Megatron had written himself.. with a sigh, Nautica sat down on a chair and let herself get swept into the passages of the writing. A good book always had a way of catching her spark, but the former Decepticon leader was such a phenomenal wordsmith. It was no wonder, she mused, that so many had joined his cause; She was far from a Decepticon, but after consuming his works, knowing the way that the sentences danced off the page and twirled about her helm, she could not be surprised at the staggering amount of Cybertronians who had pledged themselves to his war. 

The fact that she had already gotten halfway through the book should have been telling that Nautica had been there far too long, but she had ended up losing track of time entirely, too swept up in the writing. Her mindlessness soon came to reap the consequences, however, when the door slid open and a surprised new Captain, former war criminal, spotted a violet-framed Femme sitting in his hab suite reading a book he himself had written. 

“Can I help you?” Megatron raised his voice, a bit taken aback when she suddenly shrieked and dropped the book, rushing to her pedes and looking up to meet his eye. The Camien—at least, that’s what he assumed she was—had no response, only stood there staring at him like a Cyberdeer in a triple-changer’s headlights. Perhaps he should have barked at her, bitterly told her to get out and never touch his belongings again, but .. he squinted down at her, feeling somewhat offput by how familiar she looked. He knew, tracing his memory files, that they had never met, but something about her spark energy, her EM field—He leaned down to study her face, as if attempting to solve a newly presented puzzle. As he did so, Megatron noticed that her features had relaxed the closer he got, and the fearful look on her face was replaced with an expression of curiosity and wonder, as she tilted her head in time with his to study eachother.

If suddenly realizing what they were each doing, Nautica and Megatron simultaneously backed away, with him resuming his wary glance at her and her shuffling away towards the door. “I, am  _ so _ sorry sir, I—I’m new to the ship, and was sort of wandering and I just—“ She clamped her mouth shut, already making a fool of herself. Her processor came up blank on how to properly excuse herself, so she just blurted out the best string of words she could think of. “I really, really love your writing. By the way. Oh, and my—my name is Nautica. Goodbye, Captain!” With that, she turned full heel and hurried out the door, not daring to look behind her for fear of the look on his face.

What was  _ that _ ? She should have been deathly terrified of him, but .. Primus, for some reason, she had felt as though she was just talking to an old, close friend when he’d leaned into her face. Part of her, in fact, had been momentarily urged to move her face forward and close the gap—

_ Nautica! _ She slapped the side of her helm, rushing back to Swerve’s, where Brainstorm had undoubtedly ended up. Good grief. What was she thinking? Perhaps the panic had caused a split-second case of delusion, or perhaps his EM field was just too overwhelming for someone who wasn’t used to it at all. Whatever it was, she brushed it out of her mind, already fixed now on getting a heavy drink. That’s what she needed, is all—a tall glass of triple-filtered, and she would be set. No more weird thoughts about someone she just met.

———

Megatron, on the other hand, was left a bit shellshocked, standing in his hab suite alone as he stared down at the book she had left on the desk. He already assumed this crew was full of bizarre characters, but  _ Nautica _ ... He shook his helm, trying to get the image of her wonder-filled, starry-eyed expression out of his head. Ridiculous. Strange, certainly, how familiar she had seemed, how harshly his spark had burned when she was close, but it was no doubt some Autobot tomfoolery. A side effect of the Fool’s energon, or some unknown outlier ability that made him feel such a way. 

With a huff, he picked up the book and checked the page she was on. She’d gotten that far already? Impressive, he had to admit. 

But back on the shelf it went, stacked along with his other failed and succeeded mementos of the past. Megatron scanned over the works, still feeling that strange sense in his spark, yet determined at that point to ignore it entirely. Autobots were always so strange, anyway, and he had more important things to focus on. 

Despite his indignation.. in the back of his processor, Megatron made a mental note to do further research into this peculiar Camien. It was a justified thought, as a particularly talented outlier would be a great asset to his new crew, and it was interesting enough on its own to study someone with such an aptitude for good literature.

Just research, he told himself. That’s all it was. No other reason to investigate this stranger that he’d never met before. 

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed!! chapter 2 is coming out soon because I have ✨absolutely nothing to do✨
> 
> please leave a comment with your thoughts or drop a kudos if you liked it! No thoughts .. head empty ... only big scary robot and tiny wifey


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megatron and Nautica have an unlikely late-night encounter after some individual trouble with getting to sleep.

_ “....tronus,” A voice called out in the dark, and Megatron turned his helm to locate the noise, only vaguely aware of his surroundings. His lips moved to call out a name, but his vocalizer was entirely shut down, and all he could do was scan his optics over the darkness, feeling more and more desperate the longer he searched. Where was he? What was he doing? Panic overtook his processor and his vents became quicker, until he felt as though he was suffocating, trapped in the inky blackness of a void. It was cold, so cold, and he couldn’t breathe, and he was going to— _

_ All at once, the world around him blossomed in an array of light and warmth, and he felt a tender servo press against the side of his helm and turn his face towards its owner. A femme stood in front of him, her frame a beautiful shade of violet, like the color of the sky when a sun descended along a planet. Like deep, pure energon, intoxicating to the tongue, a shade you could sink and drown into with no chance of escape. A flash of gold caught his optic as Megatron turned fully towards her, observing the reflective metal with wonderment before raising his face to meet her smile. Oh, her smile—lips painted a dark color, that pulled into a grin when he watched her, that beautiful laughter rung out of when she was pleased with him. _

_ “Hello, my love,” He murmured, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her frame flush to his chestplates. “It’s been too long.” _

_ “You waited for me?” She pulled her helm over his shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around his backplating. The metallic coils behind her helm draped over her shoulders and down her waist, swaying in the gentle breeze as if to add to her already elegant image. _

_ He hummed in thought, leaning down to bury his helm on her shoulder. “I suppose I got a bit distracted. It matters not, now—you’re here, aren’t you?” _

_ The femme laughed at that, pulling away to look up at him with a twinkle in her optic. Her face tilted in a reminiscent smile, reaching up to rub his cheek with her thumb digit. He’d seen her so many different ways; determined, furious, full of ambition—and loving, tender in that special reserved way, nights when her gaze focused entirely on him, her breaths meant for his lips. And now, after not seeing her for so long, he never wanted to stop looking at her. _

_ “I know,” She murmured, apparently having read his thoughts, her smile shifting into a sad one as her eyes softened. “I don’t want to leave you again.. but I’m afraid our lives are no longer our own, beloved.” _

_ “Solus...” He started in return, furrowing his brow, but she shook her head and pulled away completely now.  _

_ “It may be some time before we are truly joined again .. it seems the price we pay for our foolishness.” With a sigh, she cast her gaze to the field around them, which he just now realized was a sea of blue flowers, surrounding their frames and flooding their sights. “Wait a little longer for me, will you, Megatronus?” _

_ As she said that, the Prime seemed to fade, the warmth around him disappearing with her presence, and fear filled his senses again as he reached out for her. His servo fell on emptiness, the void again, and he tried to call out for her, scream her name—but it was silent. The darkness, the cold, it began to consume him, seeping into his mind, gripping at his soul, and he could do nothing, nothing, nothing— _

————

**_The Lost Light. Hab Suite 113._ **

Megatron woke with a start, gasping for air and feeling sickeningly cold. All systems came online, checking for something wrong, an attack, a threat—but there was nothing. Just a nightmare. It seemed that’s all he had these days. He pulled a manual shutdown of his reactive alarms, letting out a deep vent and swinging his legs over the side of the berth. He lowered his helm to his hands, trying to get a grip on reality, if only for a moment.

Who was  _ that _ ? That strange femme in his dream.. the memory of the vision was already starting to fade, and he was almost certain she had a name, but .. no, it just wasn’t coming to him. Shaking his head, Megatron rose back up and got to his pedes, not daring to go back into recharge.

Ravage glanced up from his spot at the foot of the berth, curious to see his former leader awake at such an hour. The cassette had only recently joined their ranks, after their little adventure onto the alternate Lost Light, but had already made himself cozy in Megatron’s hab suite, staying there most of the time. “Bad dream?” He mused, and Megatron looked over just to acknowledge his presence before sitting down at his desk.

“Fool’s Energon. It’s been giving me nightmares, lately.”

“Hmph,” Ravage huffed, laying his head back down on his paws and curling his tail around his nose. “I’m not surprised. It’s Autobot poison—who  _ knows _ what spite-filled chemicals found their way into it.”

Megatron hummed at that, flipping through a few half written journals before opening one to a blank page and reaching for his pen. It helped him, on nights like these, to put down on paper whatever it was that was clouding his mind. He could never write as well as he used to—he hadn’t been able to for a long time, now—but it was still a solid way of coping with his rampant thoughts. 

And yet, pen pressed to paper, he could find nothing to say. It felt as though his processor was running on empty, with all mental paths coming up blank as he tried to describe his current thought process. With a sigh, he placed the pen down, about to start reading through his older entries when he heard a noise outside—the telling sound of footsteps down a hallway. 

The door slid open with ease, catching the Autobot in the hallway by surprise as Megatron locked eyes with her. 

“Nautica,” He greeted, ignoring the strange tingle in the pit of his spark that always seem to rile up when she was around. Ever since their first meeting, something had seemed off about the Camien; and he had yet to figure out what it was. “You’re up rather late. Where are you running off to?”

“You’re up too!” She remarked back, apparently not one to give into any intimidation factor he put off. “But I was just headed down to Swerve’s for a late night drink. I, ah .. couldn’t sleep.”

“Bad dream?”

Nautica blinked up at him, lips pursed in a questioning expression. “Yeah—how’d you know?”

_ Huh _ . Megatron stepped out of his room with a sigh, shutting the hab door behind him before glancing back to her and changing the topic. “Do you mind if I join you? I could use a hard drink.”

————

**_The Lost Light. Swerve’s._ **

The whole place was empty, of course. Ultra Magnus had established business hours for the bar in exchange for allowing it to continue, Megatron had heard, so during the typical “night hours”, all its usual visitors scurried away to some other hidden corner of the ship. Except Nautica, apparently, who swung a key around her digit to unlock the case of pure Engex bottles that Swerve kept behind the bar. Megatron took a seat on one of the stools as she moved around the counter, sliding a rectangular-shaped bottle to him and pulling up a cylinder-shaped one for herself.

“Remind me again how you gained access to this place?” Megatron mused, popping the cork off the bottle and swirling it idly in thought.

“Skids,” She explained, leaning her elbows on the counter and raising her own bottle to her lips. “He lost a bet, and we struck a deal so that he’d get Swerve to make a copy of the key. You know, for... stuff like this. Nightmare nights.”

He hummed in thought, eyeing her before taking a long swig of the Engex, relishing in the burn that slid down his throat and added a bit of life to his systems. 

“You know,” He remarked, setting it back down on the counter. “As your Captain, I really shouldn’t be endorsing this. I’m well within my grounds to cuff you and send you off to Ultra Magnus’s office, if I so choose.” Of course, he had no intention to, but he raised an optic ridge at her out of curiosity to see how she’d react. 

To his mild pleasure, she only spun her bottle in her hand and tilted her helm at him, clearly not bothered by his little threat. “I’m afraid you’ve already endorsed it too much, sir. The moment you drank from that bottle, we became accomplices— _ partners in crime _ , if you will.” Nautica grinned, hiding her clearly embarrassed expression behind a bold statement and a bottle of triple-filtered.

“Hah!” He smiled back at her with a chuckle, impressed by her quiet audacity. “You’d make a fine Decepticon, my dear. You certainly don’t lack the cunning.” Megatron raised the bottle again, tipping his helm back to take a proper swig, and pretended not to notice the way she was staring flushed at him.  _ Oh, yes _ , he remarked to himself.  _ I’ve still got it _ .

With an awkward “anyway” cough, Nautica leaned on her fist and turned her head away, optics tracing the decoration on the sides of the bar walls, clearly thinking about something particular. Before he could get the chance to ask, she looked back towards him and gave him a serious look.

“Why did you say what you did to Rewind?”

“.. I beg your pardon?”

“In the quantum foam,” She elaborated, leaning over the counter to get a better look at his face. “I heard afterwards, that you—when he asked if he and Chromedome were still close in our universe.. you knew that Rewind had passed, but still, you.. you told him that they were; just to reassure him in what you thought were his final moments. Why?”

Megatron found himself a bit taken aback by the question. Firstly, at how forward she was to ask such a thing, but secondly because .. he didn’t know. Genuinely, thinking back.. why  _ had _ he? If Rewind had died then, it would have made no difference whether or not he reassured him, nor did he claim to care much about the whimsical feelings of Autobots. So why did he say what he did?

“The pain of losing a lover is a trial worse than death,” He spoke up at last. “Who am I to torture an already tormented spark in what might have been their last moments?” Millenia ago, he might have said the opposite, might have even taken pleasure in watching hope flicker out of a dying enemy’s eyes. But now.. well, he just didn’t know. Something had changed, that was for certain; he was just still determining what it was.

“Have you ...?” Nautica started, giving him a concerned expression. “You know.. lost someone ..?”

Their eyes met, and he paused, taking a long, quiet sip while staring her down, as if searching for some sort of darker motive behind her eyes. No such thing—she seemed a femme of pure innocence, and he relented at the thought, setting his now-empty bottle down with a sigh. 

“I have.” Too many times, all in different ways; to the mines, the Autobot cause.. the war, his own foolishness and hatred. And to—a shiver suddenly went down his spinal strut, a flash of a memory appearing in his mind: a gleaming sword, a sickening splatter of energon, his servos covered—

“Megatron? Are you alright?” His attention snapped up when she spoke his name, worry lacing her optics. He hadn’t realized it, but his fists had clenched, his frame running cold in turn. If he had still been holding his bottle, weakening energon or not, it would have been shattered in a thousand pieces. 

“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” Megatron assured, leaning his helm on one hand and making a dismissive gesture with the other. “Just a .. bad memory, is all.”

Nautica frowned, looking a bit guilty now. “Oh. I’m sorry, I—I really shouldn’t have pried. Um...” She puckered her lips, thinking, then pointed at him in a sudden lighthearted manner. “Hey, I meant to ask; how’s your cat doing? He’s been staying in your room, right?”

He snorted, giving her a look as his thoughts snapped back to reality. “Ravage isn’t  _ “my cat” _ . He is..  _ was _ , a loyal Decepticon, a cassette tape at the aid of Soundwave. My communications officer,” He added at the end when she made a confused expression. Right; she missed the war. And apparently all of its key figures. 

“But he’s .. fine. Unhappy with my situation, but I doubt he’ll act on it if I don’t want him to. And I don’t.” He lifted his chin, helm still resting on his propped up servo, and took the moment to idle his optics over her frame, feeling somewhat reminiscent of his days as a Gladiator. If his younger self was sitting here talking to such a beautiful femme.. well, they’d be somewhere far different than a bar. 

_ Good heavens _ . He mentally slapped himself for the thought, snatching his eyes away from the alluring biolights along her waist, trying to figure out where such an intrusive thought had wandered in from. Even on their short adventure onto the alternate Lost Light, with Skids and Getaway glaring holes into the back of his bucket, Megatron had repeatedly found himself watching her. Something about her movements.. her intellect, her energy, the way she lit up when she spoke about her passions. Something about that bright a smile to his face, as much as it agitated him to admit that some strange Camien Autobot could make him feel so ... upturned. 

It had gone silent, he realized, too distracted in his pensive mindset about her to notice that neither of them were filling the silence. It wasn’t so bad, actually; silence in of itself could be appreciated. Nautica was nursing the last sips of her bottle, eyes trailing the patterns along the room, lit up with curiosity and wonder as always.

“It’s funny how things play out, sometimes.” She remarked after a long bout of quietness, and Megatron glanced up from staring at his empty bottle to give her an inquisitive look, prompting her to continue. “I mean—two million years ago, however long, I never would guessed I’d be anywhere other than Caminus—much less talking to..  _ Megatron _ .”

He chuckled at the way she emphasized his name, folding his servos under his chin and leaning forward. “No? It is a bit far-fetched from that standpoint, I would think.”

Nautica laughed in return, shaking her head and leaning forward in subconscious mimicry of him, face turned away in thought. “I read everything you ever wrote, you know. Well, not.. everything, just whatever I could find. I always thought you.. I mean your writing was just .. astonishing.”

Megatron couldn’t deny, the thought of her sitting alone, reading through passages he’d poured his spark into and soaking up every word.. He had to manually stop his internal engine from starting up, leaning back with an indignant huff at his own ridiculous whims. 

“You flatter me, Nautica.” A smile cracked over his lips despite his attempts to not show his pleasure, and his ruby-colored optics twinkled in a hidden delight. “But you’re right—you haven’t read everything. In fact..” Megatron was seconds away from inviting her back to his Hab Suite to scour over his personal works, but caught himself before he could get the offer out. 

_ No, you fool, _ he scolded himself.  _ Look at yourself—you’re old, you’re weak, you’ve already made a buffoon of yourself; you barely have a life left to live, anyway. There’s nothing left for you once this trip is over—don’t even THINK about it. _

Megatron sighed. Always the master of self-sabotage. He waved his hand, disregarding the previous thought. “Nevermind. Perhaps sometime I can lend you another book of mine, if you’re so interested. I think, for now, however, I had ought to get going.” Shifting off the seat, he stood to full height, towering over the bot still behind the counter. He decided not to think about the disappointed look on her face, and definitely not to hyperanalyse this conversation in his journal alone in his room, later. 

“Thank you,” Megatron said quietly, looking down at her when she had finished relocking the storage cabinet and came back around the counter. “This was a pleasant escape.”

“Oh, sure. Of course, Captain.” She responded easily, helm turned up to him as she held her almost-empty bottle in both hands. “It was nice to talk with you.” Nautica opened her mouth, as if to say something else, but quickly closed it again, apparently disregarding the thought and heading back towards the door.

Megatron went as well, a few paces ahead of her and about to start the walk back to his room when he felt a smaller servo on his armplate, causing him to glance down in surprise.

“Um, can we .. do this again sometime? Just—I have a lot I want to ask you, about.. your writing, and .. all that.” She managed out, faceplates a bit flushed with energon, and he studied her face for a moment before returning an unnaturally reassuring smile.

“I would like that, little Autobot.”

Nautica paused, then smiled back, retrieving her hand and giving him a decisive nod. Without anything else spoken, she moved past him back to her own hab, swinging her bottle with one hand. She sent one last look towards him, catching his spark for a second, before just as quickly turning the corner and disappearing into the night. 

Megatron stood frozen there for ages before finally snapping out of his trance and trudging his way back to his hab suite. A terribly peculiar feeling had bubbled up in his frame, finding himself almost shellshocked by the entire interaction. Yet again, she had seemed so familiar, so warm, as though he’d known her his entire life. As though she’d been haunting him for all his cycles, and now materialized only to tease his patience. 

Just who  _ was _ this femme?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 2 as promised! next chapter will focus more on nautica’s perspective, since the last two have been more on megatron. also I hope y’all like the primes because they WILL be coming more into play


End file.
